I love it when I get to announce a new car. Okay, maybe I can’t take all the credit for this one. But, I do have the honor of sharing with the huddled masses two amazing new cars, including an entirely new nameplate. If it’s any consolation to GM, I’d be happy to put down my deposit for the first one today.

How it happened

Out of the blue, I decided to pull up my OnStar vehicle profile, and check its maintenance. I don’t know why. But, I did. And afterwards, I was once again ticked that my 2009.5 Pontiac G6 V6 (with FlexFuel), could not take advantage of even the most basic of OnStar RemoteLink features. Generation 8.0 OnStar “won’t ever” support RemoteLink, sadly.

Just for fun, I decided to pull up the list of cars which did support RemoteLink. Sheer boredom, I was expecting nothing but what I knew.

And then I saw it. A 2014 Model Year button. Oh, this must be a mistake, I thought. Nothing will show up. Null entry, move on. Right?

Oh how glad I am that I clicked that button.

Chevrolet + Pontiac G8 = ? (Oh, just look below!)

When I did, my jaw dropped. Because right there, in black and white, was the name of my next car — the 2014 Chevrolet SS Performance sport sedan. Yes, that’s right, the full name of GM’s answer to Dodge’s Charger SRT8 and Ford’s Taurus SHO is revealed.

It has been widely held that this car will be a captive import of the Holden Commodore VF, under the next-generation of Zeta platform architecture. You may remember that GM did this a couple times before, with the much-beloved Pontiac G8 and last-generation GTO.

All I can say is please GM, please do this right. In Australia, the Holden Commodore is sold (optionally) as a bi-fuel car, supporting natural gas and gasoline. That feature must make it over here, in some form, for this car to be a big winner. CNG natural gas is not only more environmentally efficient, it costs as low as $2/gallon to fill up. Out here in California, our utilities have public CNG gas stations everywhere. Imagine a 426 horsepower beast that can refuel for $2 per gallon, and fall back to gasoline when convenient. That’s possible, it’s being sold in Australia, by GM today!!

Beyond that, all I can ask for is a Pontiac G8-style option, either as a dealer-install or from the factory. Call it the GTO Package, and let folks have a Pontiac heritage-inspired trim layer. The cost would be trivial, even Holden customers were willing to pay extra to style their cars like the iconic Pontiac G8.

Bias: I do support the return of Pontiac. Anything that brings Holden’s over here is personal to me. Someday, maybe, just maybe, Holden and Pontiac could team back up the same way Buick and Opel do today.

Cadillac XLR + Battery = ? (Look below, you know the drill.)

Now, onto Cadillac. The same site also confirmed that the Cadillac ELR (Electric Luxury Roadster… wait, we’re not supposed to say those letters stand for anything ;) ), is a go for the 2014 model year. General Motors had confirmed the ERL was green lit for production (after first claiming Bob Lutz’s Tesla S-killer, had been killed off)… but this is the first time we have a date-certain model year. All signs point to the ELR being a faster, four-seat, Delta II-based offspring of the Chevrolet Volt.

No Corvette-based Alpha platform, or any RWD in sight, sorry. This may fill the void of the Cadillac XLR nameplate, but it takes a very different track to get there. I hope to be wrong on both points, but I don’t expect to be. Mules of the ELR have been shown around Detroit in not-so-convincing Chevy Volt costumes.

Regardless, I feel really bad for the OnStar web admin team. I actually applied to be a member of the OnStar team awhile back, and know a few people working there. It’s certainly not a good day when you hand someone the keys to announcing a couple of great new products, way ahead of schedule.

First off, Steve, the fact of not removing the Avalanche from the list doesn’t matter. It is the fact that OnStar ADDED the SS Performance and ELR to the list. Forgetting to delete an outgoing model is no biggie, but why would they take the time to add in the SS Performance and ELR when testing out the 2014 interface?

Just as Oosh said, the Holden Commodore’s bi-fuel system is LPG (Propane) and that is an outgoing technology, actually. In many areas of the U.S., propane is actually double the price of gasoline and the power loss is significant.

What we need is CNG, which is actually cheaper and easier to add to a gasoline car, plus the power and fuel economy loses are negligible on CNG injection systems. Plus its price goes as low as $0.88 per gallon.

Just to add on LPG vs CNG, my discussions with all of Detroit’s big three have indicated that this is not a big deal. All three are committed to CNG for the United States, and all three do acknowledge bi-fuel CNG/Gas cars will make it here.

My argument is simply that GM could be selling one today, in the form of the SS Performance with a Bi-fuel option.

In regards to the Holden Commodore, the choice of LPG is due to Australia favoring the LPG domestically over CNG. I could go into all the reasons why America went with CNG instead, but CNG is the future for the United States.

Modifying the Commodore VF (SS Performance) to be a bi-fuel CNG/Gas car, instead of a LPG/Gas variant, would be pretty trivial in my opinion. Different fuel tank, different injectors. Nothing GM doesn’t already have experience with, including on the upcoming Silverado 2500HD Bi-fuel Edition.

I agree Christopher. LPG is the way of Europe and Australia, but the U.S. is more favoring to the CNG route, mostly due to its abundance in the States. Even if Chevy doesn’t offer us a CNG variant, it is still relatively cheap for a sequential CNG injection kit ($1,000 – 2,000), then installation ($500 – 1,000), but you can throw them in yourself, if you have a little mechanical know how and a free weekend to spare.

By the way, I wanted to let you know that I used your information to produce an article for a site I work for. There are also several other sites that are in the same class as my employer that picked up your story. Awesome find, man.

I have actually been following the Chevy SS rumors since GM Inside News broke it back in 2011 and have been following the breadcrumbs that GM has been leaving behind since that day (Caprice PPV coming to the U.S., trademarking “SS” and now this).

I also plugged a backlink into the article to try and get you a little extra traffic. :)

Christopher, I have to take exception to one point in your article. As the original owner of a 2009 G8 GT (sport and premium package.) that has never been driven in rain or snow and has less then 7,500 miles on it. The last thing I want to see is any appearance package for the 2014 SS model available from the factory or dealer that may further under-value my already depreciated, weekend driven, garage queen. I believe your, albeit whimsical, hope for an option that would re-create the G8 would undermine resale values greatly.

Here in Toronto and in most all of Canada I believe, Pontiac G8’s, particularly the GT variety, were not an overwhelming sales success for GM. Most Pontiac, Buick, GMC dealers were offering substantial discounts on the GT model as Pontiac inched towards becoming an orphan brand and dealers feared being stuck with them. The 6 cylinder version of the G8 enjoyed greater popularity here due to gasoline being significantly higher priced. Subsequently, as time moves on and in particular over the last year or so, cars like my 6.0 liter G8 GT have become quite sought after by those that realize what an amazing product it truly is. With increased demand, prices are rebounding nicely for well cared for, highly optioned, V-8 cars. And that is the way I would like it to remain.

Now, if you wanted to add the Holden front and rear fascia.. you could check out the G8 Board or Grrrr8.net and feast your eyes on something truly unique AND available right out of the GM Australia parts catalog.

Oh, I’m well aware of all the GM body kits for the Commodore. I personally prefer a VXR8 with the Pontiac grilles reinserted.

The problem, is cost. To import those parts from far-flung parts of the world, is prohibitively expensive for most consumers. Paying one third the cost of a car for parts-and-installation is a tough pill to swallow, just to make your car look exactly like another GM car.

Part of my interest in a G8-style option for the SS Performance sedan would be market research. If the option proved to be popular, it could help convince GM to fall back to its original plan (before Obama’s “Auto Task Force” shut it down) to offer Pontiac as a niche brand, out of Buick-GMC dealerships.

Seriously though, I wasn’t being whimsical. GM has a lot of heritage that is rotting in closets, because of bean counting (as well as a bit of car-guy overshooting). The bean counters and car guys need to come up with solutions inside GM that resolve this, improve GM competitively, and improve GM’s image. I think that’s possible, but I think it requires a lot of willingness to cut through corporate groupthink.

In reality though, much like the action plan at BringPontiacBack.org, I seriously doubt that any movement will occur on that front… at least until GM is divested from government ownership, and its voting majority.

I agree with you on pursuing natural gas vehicles – as you said they are better for the environment, and they will be less expensive to operate. Especially with such a surplus of natural gas right now, the time to come out with these cars is today!

Guys just a short note to say that Holden are currently testing 3 SS chev spec LHD vf commodore’s here in Australia ATM with what looks like to be the new I think 5.5lt v8 in them
I know they still want to export to the middle east
Christopher if you email me on the attached email Ill send you a copy of images once vf is in print here in oz.
I know it’s returning to the us as the interior is now a full evo of the caddy interior gone is that hideous handbrake for a more modern style